The National Innovation System and the Group of Eight's Submission. (May 5, 2005)

The Group of Eight has submitted to the Federal Government an extensive and carefully crafted document for the National Innovation System.

The three parts of the submission are available on its web site in PDF format.

Go8 submission to the Review of the National Innovation System (Executive Summary)

Go8 submission to the Review of the National Innovation System (Full document)

Go8 supplementary submission to the Review of the National Innovation System

As would be expected the document focuses on the place of the research universities and the special place that they occupy in the fabric of a nation's capacity for innovation: "They are responsible for creating, preserving and transferring knowledge, and for developing talent. They form international gateways for Australia through the relationships they build primarily through basic research. They provide a culture of support for creativity and risk-taking. They cultivate talent in an environment that values and stimulates intellectual curiosity."

The full 130 page document puts forward what might be termed expected overall views regarding the importance of the research intensive universities, which makes them no less valid for that, but the power of the document lies in summarised data particularly those in the  the 8 appendices as they give a graphic picture of where Australia is placed from the viewpoint of research and development.

Appendix A for example is a group of 24 charts depicting the citation impacts relative to several specific cohort nations using 4-year running averages from 1992 through 2005 as well as world averages for example Space Science, Physics, Materials Science, Geosciences, Neurosciences and Behaviour, and Mathematics to list just a few.

The following two figures give a summary of overall citation impacts first by nation over the 25 year period 1981-2006 while the second is a breakdown of specific categories over the five years 2001-2005.

Below are data on Australia's expenditure on R&D from 1990-91 through 2004-05

where:

GERD = Gross Expenditure on Research and Development

BERD = Business Expenditure on Research and Development

HERD = Higher Education Research and Development

GOVERD = Government Expenditure on Research and Development

PNP-RD - Private Non-Profit Research and Development

For those who like to measure accomplishment relative to punching prowess they can use the data to determine where we do and where we don't rise above our weight class and just how much above or below and above or below whom.

Finally the case for appropriate funding of research and development within the university structure is laid out. Were the Government to pay more attention to the real on-costs of research and approach the problem rationally rather than agonising over ERAs vs RQFs based on RAEs morphing into the REF layered on to competitive research funding, Australia might rise significantly higher in the pack, but God forbid that micromanagement might be significantly reduced.

Or might it be the case that such a sensible approach would rent inflation asunder?  A conundrum perhaps for the chaos theorists.